History

THE BRAVE BOY OF THE WAXHAWSAndrew Jackson, the Seventh President of the United States, when a boy of 13 enlisted in the cause of his country, and was taken prisoner by the British. Being ordered by an officer to clean his boots, he indignantly refused, and receive a sword cut for his temerity. (Printed by
Currier and Ives, 1876)

Originally known as "the Waxhaw Settlement", the area was named for its first inhabitants, the
Waxhaw Tribe. The Waxhaw had been almost annihilated by Eurasian
infectious diseases they had no immunity to, following their first European contacts. Those that remained were killed or dispersed during the
Yamasee War of 1715, which virtually emptied the area of its Native American inhabitants.[1]

Around the year 1740,
Scots-Irish and
German immigrants began to move into the Waxhaws and establish farms. What is now the Old Waxhaw
Presbyterian Church was built in 1752.[1]

During the
American Revolution, the settlers in the Waxhaws fiercely resisted the British, under the command of militia Col.
William Davie. In 1781 the British forces of
General Cornwallis briefly occupied the town of
Charlotte, already the largest town in the region, but his garrison was soon driven out by the local militia. Cornwallis later wrote that Charlotte was "a hornet's nest of rebellion," and Charlotte is still nicknamed 'The Hornet's Nest.'

Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, was born and raised in the Waxhaws. The exact site of his birth is uncertain; Jackson claimed that it was in a cabin on the South Carolina side of the border. A strong local tradition says that he was born north of the border.[1]James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, was also born in the Waxhaws district, in what is now
Pineville, North Carolina.